back to methuselah serpent monologueback to methuselah serpent monologue

EVE. Consternation reigns behind them because the others realise than, with the secret out, other long-lifers, previously in hiding, will emerge to join them and form a colony that will seem a threat to short-lived people. CAIN. The discussion is interrupted by the arrival of the Domestic Minister, Mrs Lutestring to give her mandatory quarterly report. When Ican bear no more, I go to our old garden, that is now a mass of nettlesand thistles, in the hope of finding the serpent to talk to. He loved his brother. THE SERPENT. But why did she divide into two, and make us different? I call it dead. He need not. She belongs to a colony of long-lived people and has been assigned the task of protecting short-lived visitors. You do care. The moment you find we need not last for ever,you talk as if we were going to end today. You will find more snakes than there are fingers onyour hands. stronger, happier, freer? The brothers are disappointed but remain completely confident that the He was in the line of ten godly descendants that preserved the godly promise. You are very subtle:tell me what to do. Shaw's scientific rationale for evolving long-lived humans depended on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Back to Methuselah (1952- ) Full Cast & Crew See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro Series Directed by Alan Bromly . He reveals that the drowned notables in the film clips at the Records Office are all the same person whose multiple demises had ended several significant careers. ADAM. If only the care of this terrible garden may pass onto some other gardener! If I am to die like the fawn, why should not the rest die too? Pygmalion has successfully created a pair of living, artificial human beings and is ready to display them, which he does, to an audience made impatient by his incomprehensible scientific explanations. EVE [_shaking him_] Adam: you must not brood. The first scene opens with England's president, Burge-Lubin (descendant and composite of the politicians seen in The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas) squabbling with a Barnabas descendantvia telephones equipped with televisionabout which of them should welcome a visiting American who has invented a method for breathing underwater. This leads to a rift with two-year-old Stephen, her romantic partner, but she doesn't mind because it frees her to seek solitude, where she can meditate. THE SERPENT. [4] Nevertheless, he uses both terms in Man and Superman which was written nine years before Bergson's work was published. Find me another word for what Lilith was to me. Shaw's solution is enhanced longevity: we must learn to live much longer; a centenarian should be less than middle aged. CAIN. Eve must not die before me. Jealousy. [_To Adam_]You dig roots and coax grains out of the earth: why do you not draw downa divine sustenance from the skies? Everything must have been created out of nothing. Kill me; and you will find another snake in thegarden tomorrow. THE SERPENT. Do not tell him yet. Quick. 4004 (In the Garden of Eden), The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day, The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170, Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000, and As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D. 31,920. The Ancient deftly opens the shell using a pair of saws and reveals a pretty girl, looking fresh and rosy, but with strands of spare albumen clinging to her body. THE SERPENT. She enjoys the flirting, but rejects a rendezvous and breaks the connection. The sculptors, Arjillax and Martellus, arrive. EVE [_thoughtfully_] There can be no such thing as nothing. EVE. EVE [_slipping her hand into his_] Wife and husband. There is a voice in the garden that tells me things. EVE. Your bowels become rotten; yourhair falls from you; your teeth blacken and drop out; and you die beforeyour time, not because you will, but because you must. THE SERPENT. ADAM. ADAM [_horrified_] Oh no, no. In rejecting yourdrudgery, have I not embraced evils and agonies of which you knownothing? Why not be born again and again as I am, new and beautifulevery time? Back to Methuselah By the closing years of World War I, Shaw had long supported the idea that Ireland ought to achieve a kind of Home Rule, an arrangement that would grant Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales their own parliaments, but would also maintain a joint council to coordinate matters of mutual I have told Cain already that he is not aman and that Lua is not a woman: they are monsters. He readily admits repeatedly feigning death and explains that the laws enforcing mandatory retirement at a certain age and those controlling eligibility for pensions left him with no alternative: When his record showed him old enough to be retired, he could no longer keep his job but he was always denied a pension because he looked too young. CAIN. EVE [_slowly taking up her distaff_] If you were not a fool you wouldfind something better for both of us to live by than this spinning anddigging. EVE. Something quite different to myself, like you. You neither of you know anything about life. The creations are a man and woman, noble in appearance, beautiful to look at and splendidly attired. THE SERPENT. BACK TO METHUSELAH The first performances of Back to Methuselah were undertaken By the Theatre Guild of New York, and began on the 27th February 1922 in the Garrick Theatre in that city. Will you kill tigers and bears until I have a heapof their skins to lounge on? Her fury turns to delight with the beauty of her tunic when they dress her. I can remember when you were yourself a thing that couldnot happen. CAIN. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1928. He says no and tries to hide his tears, which he attributes to hay fever. When shall I die? I am the old serpent, older than Adam, older than Eve. EVE. Some of them will neither dig nor fight: they are moreuseless than either of you: they are weaklings and cowards: they arevain; yet they are dirty and will not take the trouble to cut theirhair. I can make better use of my time thanto play the husband to the clay beneath my feet. It cannothappen. So that is what comes of turning your face to the clean clearheavens! ADAM. Life has becomeuncertain. Why not? The new Adams and Eves might kill us. THE SERPENT. Listen to me, Eve; and you,snake, listen too, that your memory may hold my vow. ADAM. And be it noted, Lilith, the first mother, is the presiding imaginative principle of Back to Methuselah itself. No progress! I spare you;but others may kill you. Go on with yourspinning; and do not sit there idle while I am straining my muscles foryou. ADAM [_dropping the snake's head in his excitement_] What! THE SERPENT. I will divide them into two greathosts. He cannotbear pain, nor take trouble with his body. (play) (5 episodes, 1952) Series Cast Series Produced by Harold Clayton . You shall notlisten to that snake any more. Let the newAdams clear a place for themselves. What did the Voice say to you when you thought all that? For you werethe first children in the world, and filled us with such wonder anddelight as no couple can ever again feel while the world lasts. Whatever I fear to do is wicked. Have you a word for this new misery? An immense serpent is sleeping withher head buried in a thick bed of Johnswort, and her body coiled inapparently endless rings through the branches of a tree, which isalready well grown; for the days of creation have been longer than ourreckoning. Strangers. Let itnow give me certainty or go in fear of me. CAIN. THE SERPENT. EVE [_to Adam_] You think, perhaps, that his way of life may be betterthan yours after all. I know you: Iam your mother. I will not have it. Shaw, Bernard. ADAM [_uttering a grunt of disgust_]!!! That is how I pay forAbel's blood. ha! She asks if the child is ready to be born and Acis says the child is more than ready, that she has been shouting and kicking inside her egg and refuses to wait quietly. Their son Cain arrives, boastful and aggressive, proud to have invented murder by killing his brother Abel. Will they live long enough to eat manna? I have striven with a man: spear to spear andshield to shield. No. THE SERPENT. Whilst the east wind prevails Britain shall prosper. And of Lua they will say nothing; but when they thinkof her they will spit. all those multitudes of menfighting, fighting, killing, killing! You need not live to see another summer; and yet thereshall be no end. Languages: English, Espanol | Site Copyright Jalic Inc. 2000 - 2023. He defiantly dares her to remove her veil and robe. She learns of the Archbishop's longevity with great interest but no evident surprise and it soon emerges that she, also, is long lived and remembers Archbishop Haslam from the time she was parlour maid for Franklyn Barnabas. The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman begins in 3000 AD, on the south shore of Galway Bay where an old man is found sitting on an ancient stone bollard, once used as a mooring for ships. RM 2M3T4KJ - Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, with Colin Keith-Johnston as Adam, Gwen Ffangcon-Davies as Eve, and Edith Evans as the serpent in part I 'In the beginning'. I do not blame you. Both Burge-Lubin and Barnabas are considerably put off because they stand in awe of her although they deem her quite good-looking. I want to see my work sometimes. CAIN. He shrieks and falls, but rises once again, because The Oracle missed her target. Yes: that is a good hard word. No: I am afraid of it. As Far as Thought Can Reach is in a time when short-lived people are a mere footnote in ancient history, and great longevity is the norm. You can imagine such an end; but you cannot desire it,therefore cannot will it, therefore cannot create Adams only. If only the sentinel set by the Voice can berelieved! And the manthat slays me shall have her for his booty. I revolt against the food. THE SERPENT [_to Adam_] Do you want her to die? ADAM [_brightening_] That noise takes away fear. That is the true nature of woman. CAIN [_rising_] You did well: I, too, do not want to live for ever. ADAM [_instinctively moving his hand towards her_] Husband and wife. Man-eating! Although both ideas are out of scientific favour as the twenty-first century begins, Shaw accepted them completely (See Commentary, below.) It gives us the strength by which we made you and all mankind.Cut off from the clay which you despise, you would perish miserably. I like you; but I do not like myself. "Poor short-lived thing!" [_He turns quickly towards the serpent, and in doingso puts his foot on something sharp_]. [8] Methuselah is said to be Shaw's only real engagement with science fiction. When you have to snare the little tender birdsbecause it is too much trouble for her to chew honest food, how much ofa great warrior do you feel then? I will clear themaway tomorrow. Do not listen to her: the noise is good: it lightens my heart.You are a jolly snake. The Ancient refuses, saying he is too mature for gambolling; ancients must stick to their own ways of enjoyment. And I will love Eve all that time and noother woman. Savvy and Haslam are nearly unaffected because the entire idea is well above their heads. That may come too. EVE. Of the coming true of your dreams and mine. It was I whowhispered the word to you that you did not know. THE SERPENT. Youfight because you think that your fighting makes her admire and desireyou. You callthat the nature of woman! to beAdam, Adam, Adam through more days than there are grains of sand by thetwo rivers, and then be as far from the end as ever! Undutiful! On the west side stands a little classic temple and in the middle of the glade there is a marble altar, shaped like a table, and long enough for a man to lie on. Because if he could do that he could do without Eve. You say we must not cease to exist. who have the labor of the child-bearing: I! The Ancient examines the newly born carefully and pronounces her fit to live. Let Eve vow to loveyou until your death. Afternoon. Barnabas goes to meet the American inventor, who wants to use Records Office film footage to create a You imagine what you desire;you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will. THE SERPENT. Dare it. EVE. THE SERPENT. EVE [_rising and running to him_] Only think, Adam! 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